hurtling through universes one page at a time

The moment of Classic Alice

I’m bad at keeping up with updates of videos that honestly are not that long

My heart is crushed when my favorite characters “decide” that it’s the end.

This is the last week of Classic Alice, and I am definitely not ready for this story to end. I keep thinking that if I don’t watch the final episodes, then technically it’s not over for me yet, but, as a fan, I can’t bear to not see the resolution.

On the bright side, there’s going to be an app (iOS only), so all the transmedia will be much easier to find and follow whenever I rewatch it.

In a Philosophy of Art class that I took last spring, we talked about the fullness of the haiku. It’s not just a style of poem with a 5-7-5 syllable scheme. From my *very questionable* understanding, there’s a moment in that second line when everything is aesthetically pleasing and full and complete – an ascent to the top of a mountain – and then it suddenly drops off. The surface tension on the water droplet suddenly breaks, and it falls. There is beauty in completion, then you breathe, and it ends.

This feeling is what last week’s episodes reminded me of. I think this week will be that final, quick descent after the moment.

Kate Hackett wrote this show beautifully. Alice Rackham starts her literature project as a guided tour to emotions. It’s an exploration of self in which books push her to try new things and make new friends. She loses focus for a while as she turns into a vampire and feasts on the emotions of her best friends, but she learns about the unpleasant aspects of herself. She learns that she can be cruel, a painful lesson, but one that’s ultimately necessary if she wants to understand everything that happens in her own heart.

She falls in love, makes mistakes, makes mistakes again, then learns how to be a better friend.

Last week, Alice finally admitted to herself that she still loved Andrew and still wanted to be friends with him (I still think she dropped the “friend” word so much because she thought he was dating someone else). Her goal of becoming a better writer? She is one, and this project has given her the confidence and the courage to face rejection from publishers. She understands herself better, and she feels complete and satisfied in her decisions. She no longer needs characters to make her decisions for her.

Tomorrow’s video will be the beginning of the resolution of the loose ends. Andrew will read the “I’m sorry, can we be friends?” letter and hopefully reignite the friendship. Hopefully the two of them will finally talk about what went wrong during North and South. Hopefully they’ll become better communicators and better friends to each other.

Sure, I ship Alice and Andrew. They’re one of my favorite fictional couples. But I think this story is finally complete on its own, even if they don’t get back together. In bringing us on her journey of self reflection, Alice taught us about friendship.

I went into this show expecting some shipping adventures and interesting interpretations of literature by fictional characters (let’s not forget that Alice was surprised at the crime in Crime and Punishment), but what I got out of it was a celebration of friendship.

So thank you, Kate, and thank you, Alice. I don’t want this to end, but you’ve already given us an ending that’s better than okay. Thanks for the laughs and the tears and the Tumblr rants. It’s been a great adventure.